


You're Not Alone Now

by IMissTheMusic



Category: The Umbrella Academy (TV)
Genre: AU – Five Gets a Friend, F/M, First Crush, First Kiss, Five is Eighteen but This Time it's for Plot Reasons, Fluff and Angst, M/M, Past Child Abuse, Romance, Swearing, no beta we die like men, referenced character death (sorry ben)
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2019-03-21
Updated: 2019-04-18
Packaged: 2019-11-26 19:35:32
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 4
Words: 8,654
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/18184829
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/IMissTheMusic/pseuds/IMissTheMusic
Summary: Laura Hayes didn't know how, but she knew the apocalypse was coming. In a hurried attempt to escape it, she pops open the briefcase her father keeps under his bed "for emergencies," and finds herself hurtling five years into the future. When she awakens, she finds a world in ruin, a broken mannequin, and a boy pointing a gun in her face — a boy who looks a hell of a lot like that Umbrella Academy kid who disappeared when she was two.Naturally, they become fast friends.Together, Five and Laura (and Dolores) have to figure out not only how to survive in a post-apocalyptic world, but how to get back home and stop everyone they love from perishing a second time around. There's also the fact that Laura soon grows convinced they're being followed by some unknown force, but Five doesn't believe her. Yet.Put all this together, sprinkle in some teenage hormones and a firm dollop of world-ending angst, and you've found the tale of Five Hargreeves and Laura Hayes: two teens who are totally done with this shit.





	1. The End

**Author's Note:**

> Hello there everyone! I hope you enjoy my ~first ever fic~ here on Ao3! Long-time reader, first time-poster. But please don't go extra easy on me; I accept any and all feedback, good or bad! This story was mostly borne from me wanting to give Five a friend tbh, and it's kinda snowballed from there. Expect quite a few chapters in the post-apocalypse world before we get to the events of season one, but we will get there! 
> 
> Without further ado, please enjoy!

**April 1, 2019.**

Laura didn't know  _how_ she knew, but she was positive it was the end of the world. Call it a gut-feeling, call it premonition, call it  _dumb luck, for fuck's sake_ , but something in the air prickled at her lips and told her that the end was coming, and that it was coming soon. She threw her bedsheets off and hopped out of her bed, making her way open to her window and peeking outside. 

Fire. There was fire outside. A lot of it. Fuck. 

Heart pounding, the eighteen-year-old raced from the window to her parents' room, pushing the door open with shaking hands. She looked around in a panic, head whipping almost dangerously, as she scanned the room for that old briefcase of whatever her dad firmly told her was  _only for emergencies_. This had to qualify, didn't it? The world was on fire. She thought about calling her parents to check, however—they weren't home, they were at the opera, and  _oh fuck wasn't the opera in the direction of the_ no can't think about that right now—but decided there was no time to deliberate. 

She found the case underneath the bed, half-hidden beneath some dirty laundry. Quickly, she flicked it open, the world around her exploding into flame just as the case erupted with a bright blue light. 

Laura screamed, reality twisted, and before a single lick of fire could rain down on her, the night faded away into a blue ocean of God knows what. 

* * *

  **April 1, 2024.**

"Well, Dolores, either I've finally lost it, or there's a living, breathing girl on the ground right there." 

Laura awoke with a start at the sound of a man's voice. She breathed deeply, eyes squinted shut due to the bright sunlight, and proceeded to practically cough up a lung, curtesy of the dusty gust of air that ran mercilessly down her throat. Wincing, she opened her eyes and greeted herself to the terrifying sight of a gun pointed straight at her face.  

"Woah, woah!" she shouted, scrambling to her feet with her hands in the air. "What the fuck are you doing?" 

Staring back at her was a boy—probably about her age, give or take—with dark brown hair that was a little too long to be a fashion choice and sharp, light blue eyes stoked with a conflicting mixture of skepticism and excitement. His face was dirty (he'd clearly not interacted with a shower in some time), and, most disturbingly— _though, there wasn't anything about this that_ wasn't  _disturbing_ —he seemed to be standing protectively in front of what appeared to be a broken mannequin in a wheelbarrow. 

She had to be dreaming. Or dead. Or both. Laura could not accept that what she was looking at was anything short of a strange fantasy concocted in her unconscious mind. 

"Who are you and how the hell did you get here?" His voice was shockingly void of emotion, save the ghost of something that sounded like it was once pride. But he had a gun pointed at her so Laura wasn't going to comment on his tone of voice any time soon. 

"M-my name is Laura Hayes. I...I don't know how I got  _here_ , specifically, but...fuck, shit, I can't believe—where is it?!" Forgetting the sticky situation she was in, Laura turned towards the rubble she'd been laying in, surveying the area for her father's briefcase. That damned thing! It must've been what brought her to...whatever this place was. 

"What are you looking for?" the boy questioned, lowering his gun a bit in favor of curiosity. He raised it again when Laura didn't answer. "I  _said,_ what are you looking for?" 

 "Briefcase...my father's...for emergencies...I grabbed it when everything started burning and it must've been—I don't know— _magic_ or some shit, like Marry-fucking-Poppins—fuck, that's insane, but—wait a minute. Where even  _is_ here?" 

Laura paused her searching, taking a moment to really look around for the first time. As far as she could see, the world was nothing but rubble and destruction. Broken buildings. Hollowed-out cars. Cracked pavement. No life, besides the boy pointing a gun at her. Fuck. Did the briefcase somehow transport her to a war-torn country? She didn't have a passport, or money, or... 

"The better question,  _Laura Hayes_ —" He said her name strangely, as if it was foreign, even though his accent was clearly either Canadian or American as well— "Is  _when_ is here. Because it seems, unwittingly or not, you managed to time-travel."  

“That’s bullshit,” Laura said immediately, shaking her head at the scraggly boy. “My dad’s a mall cop. It's not like he got a  _time-travelling_ _briefcase_ as a fucking holiday bonus." 

"Yeah, well, the world didn't have time-travelling people before me," he scoffed, and this time there was definitely a bit of pride in his tone, and a lot of bitterness. "Sometimes the universe likes throwing curveballs." 

"Before you..." Laura squinted at him. He did look kind of familiar. And having any type of superpower, it could only mean... 

_Oh, shit._

"Are you trying to tell me you're one of those Umbrella Academy kids? From when I was growing up?" she exclaimed, her eyes widening. The Umbrella Academy were just getting started around when she was born—though, they'd been officially disbanded for years, when (which one was it? Oh, _right_ ) Ben died. 

"Well, when did you grow up?" he huffed, blue eyes sharp.

Laura frowned at him—gun or no gun, his personality was already getting on her nerves. "Well, I was born in 2000. I was a baby when you all were getting started, I don't even really remember the time when there were six of...oh my  _God._ You're the one who disappeared! You're Number Five, aren't you?" 

He shifted on his feet, as if his title unbalanced him, his gun going almost totally lax in his grip. "That'd be me. When...how long have I been missing?"  

“Well, it’s 2019 now. Seventeen years, it’s been, just about,” she said slowly, before shaking her head. “But seriously – _what did you mean by_ when _are we?_ ”

The boy, Five (Did he have a real name? She couldn’t remember), sighed. “It’s a little past 2019 now. It’s now approximately April or May of 2024, if my calculations are correct.”

_Oh._

Laura almost fainted, her stomach dropping. “Come again?”

“I’ve been trapped here alone for approximately five years,” he said, slowly, throwing his gun into the cart with the mannequin. “You, Laura Hayes, are the first person – besides Dolores – I’ve spoken to since I was thirteen years old.”

“Dolores?” she squeaked, unable to hide the mortification rising in her.

  _Please don’t say the mannequin, please don’t say the mannequin, please don’t—_

 He pointed to the mannequin. “Dolores, say hello.”

_Fuck me, he's insane._

 

* * *

 

 “So. 2019. What’s it like?”

Laura was uncomfortable. After politely making small-talk with Five’s mannequin girlfriend (he _did_ still have a locked-and-loaded gun at his disposal, after all), he’d taken her to a dilapidated library that he was presently calling home. Still in shock over the entire situation, Laura asked him no questions, nor did she pause at the thought of following this strange boy.

Privately, she was already admitting to herself she’d rather live out the apocalypse with a psychopath than by herself. Anyone would, most likely. It was human nature.

“Oh, uh,” she began, wondering where to start. “It’s…kinda shit, to be honest. Climate change is getting real bad, most European governments are heading back towards fascism, they only show sequels and adaptions at the movies…but, you know. It’s…not this.” 

Five almost laughed, which startled her. She'd only known him for about an hour, but emotions like happiness did not seem to lend themselves naturally to his face. Sneers and snickers, yes, but genuinely amusement? No way. 

“It’s definitely not this,” he agreed, then paused for a moment before asking. “My family?”

Laura sighed. She knew he’d get there eventually. “Right, uh, I don’t exactly know how to tell you this, but, uh, your brother…Ben. He’s—”

“—dead?” Five finished, a tight frown on his face. “I’d guessed that a while ago. His body wasn’t with the rest of them. Ben would’ve never abandoned our family, especially not during the apocalypse. He was always too good to realize that they weren't worth saving.”

_Jesus Christ. This kid's got fucking issues. Who says that about their own family?_

“He was your favorite?” she found herself asking, half from curiosity, half because she had no idea what the Umbrella Academy kids were actually like. Laura had never been too into the entire Umbrella Academy craze—she was always much more interested in _Harry Potter_ and _Lord of the Rings_ magic than real kind, to be honest—but she’d known girls at school that’d obsess over the various members.

Luther was always the crowd favorite, if she wasn’t mistaken (though Laura privately always thought he was a touch of a meathead). No one really talked about Ben. It was his powers, probably. Not glamorous like the others. Just terrifying. She remembered sometimes feeling a bit bad for him. 

 “Favorite…favorite brother, yes.” Five nodded, “Vanya was my favorite out of the bunch. I…I, uh, had a bit of a crush on her—don’t tell Dolores that, though.” 

“Vanya?” Laura questioned. She couldn’t remember a Vanya in the Umbrella Academy—Allison was the only girl. Then something else hit her. “Fuck, man—you had a crush on your _sister_?”

“It’s not like that!” For the first time since meeting him, Five seemed to lose his natural confidence. “We were classmates more than siblings. Especially her. She was always separate from the rest of us because she was ordinary, like you.”

“Like me?” Laura scoffed. “Way to compliment the only other person on Earth, Mr. Five.”

Five blinked. Laura blinked back. She let her words sink in. _The only other person on Earth._

“Oh my God,” she said slowly. “Fuck. Fuck, fuck, fuck. Everyone is dead! My family’s dead! My friends, my cat, my—oh, oh _fuck._ We need to…how the fuck do we get back?!”

Laura began to hyperventilate, her chest heaving up and down with great effort as her body stiffened up like a board. Everyone and everything—except for fucking Mr. Mannequin—was _dead._ And dad’s suitcase was missing, so there was no way of getting back. Except, unless…

 “You can time-travel! Why haven’t you already gotten us back home?” she whimpered, pointing a shaking finger at him. “I can’t…we can’t _live_ like this!”

"Panic attacks are not productive, Laura Hayes," Five told her coldly, watching the shivering girls with unsympathetic eyes. If he'd panicked when he arrived in the future the way that she was right now, he'd have died within a week. 

"I don't give a shit about what's productive! _We're living in the bad timeline of a Marvel movie!"_

“Laura,” Five said slowly, standing up. “Laura, calm down.” She did not. “Laura,” he repeated, a little sterner. “Listen, I know you don’t know me, and I know you have no reason to trust me, but going insane is _not_ how you’re going to get yourself out of this situation. I’ve been trying to figure out a way to get back home, and I promise, the moment I do I’ll get us both out of here. But you need to _calm down._ ”

Laura barely heard him. Her ears were ringing and her stomach was churning and her blood was pumping so loudly it felt like her veins were drums. This was it, she was going to—

Five sighed at her, then narrowed his eyes and threw his arms around her.

Laura paused at the contact. He smelt a bit bad, was the first thought she had. The second was that he was rather warm, and his hands—stationed awkwardly against her middle-back, stretched unnaturally straight against her spine—were gentle, despite how rough, how off-beat everything else about him seemed to be.

“I’m…sorry,” she said after a few moments of silent contact. “For freaking out.”

“It’s…alright,” he responded, just as slowly, keeping his hands floating on her spine.

This went on for a bit too long. “You can, er,” she began, “You can let go of me now. I’m fine. I promise.”

“Oh!” Five exclaimed, jumping away from her like she’d suddenly caught flame. “Sorry, I just…uh, it’s been five years, you know? It’s ridiculous but I’d forgotten what other people feel like.”

Laura stared at him, wide-eyed and horrified. She couldn't even comprehend that, and immediately her heart began to ache a bit. He'd spent  _five years_ alone here. She'd barely spent a few hours, and  _she_ was the one freaking out? She was ashamed. 

Five, however, looked at the girl's mortified expression and winced, his expression faltering as he presumed he had crossed a line with that comment.

Laura, however, proved him wrong and grabbed him by the hand and pulled him into a proper hug.

“Uh—Laura Hayes, what are you…”

“You’re not alone now, Five. It’s you and me from now on, right?” Laura pointed out.

“Well, I guess—"

“Then this isn’t the time to feel _awkward_ with another person, you know?”  

Five pulled back a little, so that he could look at her. He was startled by her eyes. Green. Bright. Hopeful. 

Hope.

That was something he was getting less and less acquainted with recently. Dolores was amazing, of course, but she...she wasn't... 

"You're right, Laura," he said with a curt nod, stepping back from her and digging his hands into his pockets. "Thank you." 

Laura sent him a smile. She was clearly still terrified, but for whatever reason, was trying to act strong. 

 _For him?_ Five almost shook his head.  _No, she didn't know him. People don't do things for the benefit of people they don't—_

"Of course, Five," she said, her voice still a bit strained. "We're gonna figure this out together." 

Five, despite himself, found himself smiling back.


	2. The Beginning

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Thanks to everyone who interacted with the first chapter of this story! I truly appreciate all the comments and kudos you all left! I hope you enjoy chapter two just as much :)

**April 2, 2024.**

"Wake up." 

Laura blinked her way back into consciousness to find Five standing over her, a can of  _SpaghettiOs_ in one hand and a  _Hello Kitty_ canteen in the other. He was frowning at her—something she'd grown to suspect would be a common trend—and was looking rather impatient. Groggily, she reached out and accepted the can and the canteen. 

"Thanks." She mustered up a smile, hoping it'd distract him from the way her hands were shaking. 

She was still in the apocalypse. She was still stuck here with a (possibly insane) ex-superhero. Her family was still dead.

Though he'd managed to calm her down last night, this reality had still yet to sink in fully, and Laura could feel the familiar sting of tears prickling in the corners of her eyes. She willed them not to fall, she couldn't cry again, not after last night—she didn't want Five to think she was  _weak._ That she wasn't worth the effort. She had a feeling he was utilitarian in that way; though he'd comforted her last night, she didn't have a single doubt in her mind that he'd drop her as soon as she stopped being useful. 

If she even  _was_ useful. 

"Are you going to cry again?" Five asked, voice mostly annoyed, though there was hint of something else— _concern? She doubted it—_ layered underneath the grimace and the narrowed eyes. "I thought you calmed down." 

Laura blinked. "Well, I mean—it's, it's still  _fresh,_ you know. Didn't you...I mean, didn't it take some  _time_ for you to come to terms with—" 

"No." Five cut her off before she could finish, his face hardening. "I got to work." 

 "You got to—" Her brow furrowed as she took a sip from her water.  _Sandy_ — "You got to  _work_? You didn't grieve at all for your family? You said you found their bodies, didn't you—"

"I don't know what you want me to  _say,_ Laura Hayes," Five snapped, taking a seat some distance from her and diving into a can of  _Beefaroni_ for himself. "I found my family, I buried them, I moved on. What else do you want? I didn't have the luxury of crying. You think I'd still be alive to find you if I sat around weeping? I had to look out for myself. I didn't have anyone to ease me into it." 

For whatever reason, his words stung Laura. As though he was blaming her for having a natural human reaction, for putting the  _burden_ of simply being here onto him. Yesterday, when he found her, he told her he'd get her out of this awful place. Was he just saying that because he wanted to  _calm_ _her down?_

"If—if you want me to leave, I-I understand," she said quietly, stomach churning from a combination of fucked up water and being scared shitless. Laura was a fucking theatre major. She didn't have the skills to survive the apocalypse. And who's to say Five would just let her leave? If she went off on her own it'd mean less resources for him. What if he decided to kill—

"Stop overthinking," Five commanded, standing up. "I don't want you to leave. I just want you to get over yourself. Be useful." 

"How? I'm not useful, I'm just...ordinary, I'll just be a fucking burden. Fuck! I wish I never grabbed that stupid fucking briefcase. It would've been better if—" 

The rough palm of Five's hand slapped Laura's cheek. Not enough to actually hurt her, but enough to snap her off of the self-pity train she was boarding. 

"Shut  _up,_ " he said, voice quiet but incredibly intense. "You sound like Vanya."

Laura wasn't sure why, but her response was simply: "The sister you had a weird, incestuous crush on?" 

"That's the one," he growled through gritted teeth, his entire body tensing. "However, I  _implore_ you to forget that particular piece of personal information if you wish to continue eating my food and sleeping in my library." 

"You want me to forget you had a creepy crush on your—" He snatched the  _SpaghettiOs_ straight from her hand. Laura's stomach growled in protest and she immediately backtracked. "You only had one sister, right? Allison, was it?" 

Five, though still tense, smirked a bit. "Better. Now finish eating. We've got work to do when you're done." 

"Work?" she questioned. 

Five's smirk grew. "You a fan of math, Laura Hayes?" 

Her stomach dropped. "I'm...I  _was_ a theatre major." 

"Well, uh," Five muttered, his face falling just as much as hers. "You have good handwriting?" 

"Good enough."

"Brilliant," he said, slightly relieved. "I talk faster than I can write. You can be my scribe." 

"Aye aye, cap'n." 

The rest of their 'breakfast' (it seemed there were no waffles or scrambled eggs in the apocalypse, not that Laura was complaining) went by in relative silence, save a few mumbled conversation snippets Five directed towards Dolores, who he had propped up beside him. It was strange, of course, but Laura couldn't really find it in herself to keep calling Five  _insane_ —if anything, she guessed, talking to Dolores was probably the only thing that had kept his personality from completely deteriorating.

This led her to wonder exactly what else Five had done over the past five years to survive, but she decided she wasn't quite ready to know yet, and instead focused her attention entirely onto making the can of stale marinara sauce and processed noodles last for as long as possible. 

 _Math,_ Laura mused, unable to hold back the frown that lurked in the corner of her lips.  _The world_  literally _ends, and I'm still stuck doing math. I can't fucking believe this._

* * *

**April 30, 2024.**

"Morning, Laura Hayes." Five shook Laura awake and passed her a can— _Chicken and Dumpling Soup? Five's feeling generous today_ —as he made his way from the section of the library they called "bedroom" into the section they called "workspace." Laura groaned—it had rained last night, and she was a notoriously light sleeper—and pulled herself into a sitting position, burying her face in her hands. 

It'd been, what, a month? A month or so since Laura had arrived in the future, and by this point she and Five had a bit of a routine put together. Five would rudely awaken Laura about four hours earlier than she was used to with a can of something or other, she'd eat, then they'd spend almost the entire rest of the day working through equations that Laura copied dutifully but couldn't even pretend to understand. It was monotonous. It was mind-numbing. It was depressing. But it was, Laura kept reminding herself, entirely necessary. 

She still cried at night, though. After Five's breathing slowed to a point that she was certain he was asleep and unable to judge her. She'd cry about her family and she'd cry about how unfair it was that she was trapped here and she'd cry about how the only other person left on Earth was hardly a person at all. He was a fucking supercomputer that had two modes and they were 'snarky asshole' and 'math'. Dolores had more personality than him.

Laura was pretty sure she hated him, but still, for whatever reason, she stayed. She was starting to forget why. 

"Hurry up," he now called from his desk, rearranging papers and pulling out books from the dust-covered shelves. That was another thing. The dust. Everything was fucking covered in dust—even on the insides. At this point, she wouldn't be surprised if someone stuck a knife in her and gray soot came out instead of blood. "We've got work to do." 

"More work than usual?" Laura sighed from her place, sipping the last of the soup broth before depositing the can in the trash bucket as she clambered to her feet. 

Five glared at her from his place, forever impatient. "I think I'm close to a breakthrough. But if you take any longer getting over here I might lose it." 

"Coming, coming," Laura growled, walking over to the table and half-heartedly accepting the notebook and pen he held out to her. "Fire away, Captain Five." 

Silence followed her request. Laura glanced up at him. "Something wrong?" 

He had an odd expression on his face, his brows slightly furrowed in what—on a normal person—Laura would've thought was confusion, but on him, she had no idea. Five didn't get confused as far as she knew, so it had to mean something else. 

"You seem..." he began, lips pursing until they seemed to disappear altogether. He shook his head. "Never-mind. Sorry. Let's get started." 

He began talking, but it took Laura a millisecond longer than usual to start writing.  _What was that about? And did he just say_ sorry? Laura felt uneasy just thinking about it. Five didn't apologize. It was a shift in their routine, and that wasn't good. Routine was the only thing that kept Laura stable. She wasn't sure she could take anything else crazy or she'd—

Her train of thought was interrupted by a loud crackling noise. 

"LOOK OUT!" 

Five's hand reached out to grab hers, and before she could even think, her world turned blue and suddenly she was on the ground outside the library, staring up at the too-blue sky with a horrible headache. Dazed, she pushed herself up onto her elbows, just in time to see half the library collapse into a pile of rubble. 

"Five?" Laura exclaimed, forcing herself to her feet despite the huge wave of dizziness overcoming her. "FIVE!" 

Laura ran towards the collapsed library, heart thrumming mercilessly as she tried to figure out how to get into the rubble, how to push her way through the stones and find him, fuck, he couldn't have just gotten trapped under there. She couldn't— _he_ couldn't—she might have hated him, but Laura  _needed_ him. 

(She was not, she knew, ready to admit that 'hate' was not exactly the most accurate of descriptors of her feelings towards him.) 

" _Fucking_ —FIVE!" she called again, frustrated tears welling up in her eyes. How was she supposed to get to him, she those pieces of stone were far too heavy and—

"Is that a hint of concern I detect?" The smug voice put a stop to any and all traces of worry in her body. 

Slowly, Laura turned around, to see Five (Dolores in one hand and supplies in the other, of course), smirking at her. 

Scratch everything. She hated him and wished him nothing but the worst. 

"I hate you," she breathed, legs giving out from under her and sending her toppling back towards the ground with a  _thud._ "Fuck," she grumbled, head spinning. "What did you  _do_?" 

"You mean,  _other_ than save you, Dolores, and all our supplies from a collapsing building in mere seconds?" Five sneered, though Laura was positive his voice was slightly strained—he was shaken up, too. "I teleported you out. I've never tried it with another person before—I expect there to be some side-effects. But you're alive, so I'd assume you'll be fine." 

She was alive. She was alive, and it was all because of Five.  _Fuck. Now she owed him a life debt._

"Thanks," she gritted out, her voice tight from a combination of physical pain and the realization that he'd never let her forget this. "The Umbrella Academy saves the world again." 

"You're not _the world_ , Laura Hayes," Five scoffed, though he still reached out a hand to her which she took with some hesitation. They never touched. This was all straying much too far from their routine for her liking. 

"Am I not?" she found herself saying, "What at this moment, pray-tell, is there besides me?" 

Five didn't answer for some time, his blue eyes unreadable as ever. After a few long beats of silence his left hand slowly raised up and reached towards her, Laura flinched away before she realized he was picking a piece of rubble from her hair. 

"Are you Irish?" 

Laura blinked.  _"What?"_

"Auburn hair. Green eyes. Those are both Irish traits, aren't they?" he said impatiently, as if he had just asked the most normal question in the world after  _saving her life._ "I'm simply asking if your family hails from Ireland." 

Laura didn't know how to express to him how strange he was being, so she simply shrugged and said. "Mostly Italian, actually."

"You don't look Italian at all." Five's nose crinkled. It was...cute. 

 _No,_ the voice in her head immediately cut off that train of thought.  _Don't even go there, Hayes._ _Never ever._

"I'm...sorry?" she responded, stepping back from him. She needed air. Air that wasn't dusty. But she wasn't going to find that anytime soon. 

"It's not your fault your genetic code is faulty," Five huffed, his usual cold tone returning with the distance she put between them. "Anyway. We need to find a new base camp, I'm thinking we head Eastward and—"

Laura's head, still spinning, made her fall to the ground again. 

Five's eyes widened slightly. "Or...or we can wait a little bit before moving. That works too." 


	3. The First Period

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Heads up — most of this chapter deals with ~menstruation~ (not like...scientifically/anatomically/graphically it's just...there) so, uh, if you don't like that, don't read this one i suppose? idk i liked this chapter a lot but i know some people get squicked out by it so you do you fam!!!

**May 2, 2024.**

It was happening. 

Laura's stomach was on fire, her head was pounding, and it felt like someone was slowly driving a blunt object through her lower back. A particularly bad cramp shot through her, and she winced so openly that Five stopped his ranting to look at her. She groaned—she couldn't fucking believe this was happening in front of him. 

"Are you okay?" he asked, clearly still a bit concerned from the events of two days ago. Though he'd never admit it to Laura, he  _was_ a bit worried that spatial jumping with her would have adverse side-effects on her body. "Are you dizzy again?" 

"Yes, but I'd wager it's not from the spatial jumping," she gritted out, suddenly feeling very hot. Her periods always appeared like this: from nowhere and with the vengeance of a thousand wronged warriors. "I'm fine. Just keep talking." 

 “...Alright,” he said after a moment, diving back in to his mathematical musings with perhaps a touch less vigor than he’d had before. Laura copied down what he said dutifully, despite the fact there was now a red flush covering her skin and unfallen tears pooling in the corners of her eyes. Five did his best to ignore it, but eventually, seeing her like this became to much for him. “Stop it.”

Laura froze. “Yes?”

Five looked at her, incredulous. “You’re clearly in a significant amount of pain right now, and I—“ He cleared his throat and shoved his hands into his pockets— “I don’t trust you to take sufficient notes if you’re ill.” 

She could tell that wasn’t his actual reasoning for stopping her, but she didn’t press the issue—simply shook her head. 

“I’m fine, Five,” she promised him, though mentally she was freaking out a bit—why did she have to be wearing light-blue jeans on the day of the apocalypse? “It’s just...you know... _that_ time.” 

The blank stare she received from Five made her want to dig a hole and bury herself in it.

”You’re going to have to be more specific, Laura Hayes,” Five deadpanned, looking frustrated with his own lack of understanding. 

Laura winced, standing up. “I really, _really_ would prefer not to. I just need to—“ 

“Your leg is bleeding!” 

 _Jesus_ fucking _Christ._

“It’s not my _leg_ , Five,” she hissed through gritted teeth, eyeing the red stain on her pants with betrayal and disgust. “I’m on my period, and unfortunately, my apocalypse welcome pack did not come with any tampons.” 

“Your...” Five began, then trailed off, his eyes widening. “Oh. Oh shit.” 

“Yeah. Oh shit.” Laura’s stomach spasmed again, causing her to grip the table with an iron grip. “ _Fuck_ me.” 

“Are they supposed to be this bad?” Five asked, putting on his best professional voice, despite the fact his eyes were still as wide as saucers, and Laura appreciated the concern, she really did, but Christ his eyes were already huge and now he looked almost cartoonish. 

“I have a reproductive disorder that makes them worse...I usually take birth control pills that lessen the pain and the blood loss but, well...” 

“Why didn’t you mention this earlier?!” Five exclaimed, his face suddenly stoked with anger. His hands were balled into fists, and Laura couldn’t decide if he was pissed at her or at himself for not remembering that periods were a thing. 

“It’s not the kind of thing one is supposed to talk about with teenage boys!” she defended, gawking at him. “You all get freaked out by it. Besides, I didn’t think it’d be as big of an issue, I’m sorry, I didn’t mean to—“

”Don’t apologize.” Five cut her off, his voice leveling and his body un-tensing as he seemed to realize how he’d been acting. “I just wish I knew so that I could’ve hel—I mean, what supplies do you need in order to return to our work?” 

Laura didn't answer right away, she stared, a bit surprised, at how upset he sounded. Was he really this angry at himself for the oversight? Or was he on the verge of another breakthrough and  _her_ breakthrough ruined it? She opened her mouth to apologize again, then remembered how he'd snapped at her, and instead answered his question. 

"Is there a drugstore standing nearby?" 

* * *

"Well, one thing's for sure," Laura said to Five as she searched through the aisles for the necessary materials, him trailing after her like a scared dog. "You don't realize how much you love _Walgreens_ until you're raiding it for pads in the apocalypse—A-HA!" 

Grinning, she came across the feminine hygiene section, and immediately unzipped her backpack and threw as many pads and tampons as she could carry into the bag—who knew the next time they'd be able to hunt for this kind of thing—all while Five frowned at her so tightly his lips turned into one thin line. 

"I can't help but feel," he began, pausing for her to zip her bag back up and face him. "That there are other steps before this one you could take—did you ever consider joining a customer loyalty program?" 

Laura shook her head. "Loyalty programs are for grandmas." 

Five somehow managed to frown even deeper. "That doesn't even make sense, Laura Hayes, what does your age have to—" 

"Why do you always call me that?" Laura cut him off and stared squarely at him. He always, without fail, called her by her full name; she just didn't understand it. 

He eyed her suspiciously, as though this were some sort of a trick question. "Why do I call you...your name?"

"Normal people don't call people by their full names, Five," Laura told him, ducking behind an aisle and whipping out a heavy-duty pad to throw on (usually she'd wait until she was in a slightly more private environment, but frankly, 1. free-bleeding is hellish and she needed it to end, and 2. making Five uncomfortable was kind of fun). "You  _can_ just call me Laura, you know. We're there. Some people even call me Laurie, or Laur, or—" 

"When I introduced myself, I introduced myself as Five, because I _want_ to be called Five," he defended from behind the aisle, his voice tight. Bingo. She'd gotten under his skin. "If I had wanted you to call me anything else I would have introduced myself as such.  _You_ introduced yourself as Laura Hayes, so naturally I..." 

Laura came from around the aisle and sent him a scathing, patronizing glare. "Come on, math-genius. You're about to commit a logical fallacy and you know it." 

"I—I was  _not_ going to—"

He froze when Laura put a finger against his lips, smirking at the fiery expression it lit in his eyes. God, this was the most fun she'd had in...well, in thirty-two days. Who knew Five was so easy to piss off? 

"Listen, Five, you may have mathematical knowledge beyond my comprehension, but did  _you_ get a 750 on the Reading Comprehension section of the SATs?" she asked, grinning. When he glared at her, she pulled her hand away. "No? Well, then you're not exactly the authority on what's a logical fallacy and what isn't, now are ya?" 

As she started to walk away, he called after her, "I can abandon, imprison, or kill you at any time, Laura _Hayes_ _._ " 

"Then who would be there to appreciate your glowing personality?" she shouted back, shaking her head then suddenly freezing when she saw...she saw... 

_Oh my God._

 "Oh my God," she breathed. "You're kidding me." 

Five appeared beside her in a flash of blue light and she didn't even flinch. "What is it—oh. Shit." 

"Don't they say that they have an unlimited shelf life?" Laura asked him, her eyes glued to the blue and white packaging. God, she'd been eating  _Chef Boyardee_ cans for so long she forgot the pure bliss of food that  _doesn't_ come pre-packaged in liquid. 

"I...I think so." 

"Well, only one way to find out!" She grabbed the box and immediately tore it open, retrieving one of the golden, spongey cakes from its packaging. God. It was beautiful. It looked absolutely perfect, and it was halfway into her mouth when Five grabbed her wrist. "What?" 

Five frowned. "I don't know...I feel like this can't be a good idea." 

Laura rolled her eyes. "C'mon, Five. Live a little, eat a  _Twinkie_. What's the worse that's going to happen?" 

* * *

 

"Now I know how Adam felt when Eve convinced him to eat that apple." 

Laura laughed, incredulous, as Five ran towards the bathrooms of the diner they were currently parked in.  _Griddy's._ Awful name, she thought. 

"You're being a bit overdramatic," she called to him, throwing herself down on one of the squishy booth cushions. He'd been sick for about an hour now, running to and from the bathroom. She would feel bad, but she had her own stomach issues to worry about. "It's just a little food-poisoning. You'll live." 

He reappeared beside her with a flash of blue. She swore under her breath and jumped.

"You went a full month without doing your little parlor trick around me and now you're doing it multiple times a day. The fuck is that about?" she demanded, forcing herself to sit up straight.  

Tactfully ignoring her calling his reality and space-time bending power 'a little parlor trick,' Five shrugged at her. "Why—?"  _Flash. Oh, he's behind the counter now, that's cute (not)—_ "Does it make you uncomfortable?" 

She glared at him. "Just a touch." 

Another flash. He reappeared on the table she was sitting at, his face inches from hers. "Good." He lingered there for a few more moments, his blue eyes pretty much all she could see, and for whatever reason Laura sucked in a deep breath. He frowned at her a bit, tracing her entire face with his eyes. And then.  _Flash._

What. Was. That. 

He was across the table now, head propped up on his hands. "Anyway, let's get back to work..." 

Laura picked up her pen and started copying, but she could barely pay attention to what he was saying. That was weird, right? She tried to deliberate with herself. Five has looked at her before, of course, he looked at her all the time. But he never  _looked_ at her; never stared at her face like he was searching for something...

"Are you listening?" Laura flinched. Five whistled out a frustrated breath through his teeth. "Laura Hayes, you  _know_ how important it is that you copy everything down exactly. If you can't handle it—" She almost breathed a sigh of relief.  _There_ was the Five she knew, the asshole who only cared about his equations and gave no shits about her personal well-being. She was used to this. She could— "Are you alright?" 

_No! Don't ask that!_

"Are you sick?"

_Fuck, Laura, why would you ask that?_

"Why would you ask that?" 

 _Yeah. Why_ would  _you ask that?_  

 "Uh..."

He looked closely at her. "Are  _you_ sick? I mean—is your...is it getting worse?" 

_Boys._

"No!" she exclaimed, standing up from the table. "Why would  _you_ ask  _that_?" 

He didn't answer right away, instead he leaned backwards in his chair, studying her. She had the urge to straighten out her clothes and she wasn't sure why.

"I...I think we're done for today," he said, voice low and deliberate. "You...you get some rest, Laura. Goodnight." 

_Thank God._

"You get some rest too, Five."

"Thanks." 

It was not until many hours later, when she was laying on a cushion, mind plagued by the long, searching look he had given her, that she realized he had called her  _Laura_ and not  _Laura Hayes_ when he told her goodnight. 


	4. The Visitor

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hey folks! Sorry for the bit of a late update; life was hectic recently. Thank you everyone who left kudos + comments + bookmarks in the time since the last update, I truly appreciate it and hope you all enjoy this next installment. :)

**August 28, 2024.**

Laura had never been great with having crushes. 

She was always the type to let them boil for years, cooking her from the inside out, oftentimes exploding in some teary confession or late-night text that immediately made her wish to withdraw from society and live out the rest of her life as a hermit. You know,  _normal teenage crushes._

So, naturally, when her brain started to do the math and realize that  _Five = attractive,_ things suddenly grew a little...tense on her end, to say the least. 

It'd been what, five months or so now?—she was honestly losing track—and ever since that night spent in  _Griddy's Diner_ Laura had been doing everything in her power to remain as cordial as possible. Wake up. Do work. Make up some shitty excuse about needing to go on a walk or wanting to read some random book they'd found in an abandoned airport. Go to sleep. Repeat. 

It was that simple. 

Well, in theory. In  _reality,_ Laura was slowly going insane. Her eyes would naturally flicker to him while they worked, trailing over his nose or his razor-sharp jawline or the way his blue eyes squinted when he was really getting on a roll. She'd get butterflies in her stomach when he touched her shoulder to wake her up each morning, butterflies which immediately grew angry when he walked away like she was nothing of consequence. Sometimes, at night, she'd fall asleep by counting  _his_ breaths. 

Absolutely. Insane. 

Today, however, was a bit too much for her. It had started off as every day did, with a can of something soaked in red sauce, but around four hours into her and Five’s work, he’d started acting a bit funny. 

And by a bit funny, she meant—you guessed it—absolutely fucking absurd. 

_“Do you want to take a break?”_

_Laura was so deeply engrossed in copying Five’s speech that she’d written down half his question by the time she realized he was addressing her._

_She looked up at him, teeth gnawing at the inside of her cheek. “Huh?”_

_“I said, do you want to take a break?” he repeated, frowning slightly. “It’s nice out today, nicer than it has been in months. I thought you’d appreciate going for a walk or...something. I don’t know, to clear your head, don’t you always say—“_

_“I go on walks at night.” Laura murmured, shaking her head. She didn’t want to walk with him, couldn’t let herself get casual with him like she had at the beginning. Those sorts of feelings could only end poorly. “Let’s just finish our work.”_

_His blue eyes hardened, freezing like shards of ice. “Did I do something?”_

_”What?”_

_“I can’t help but feel like I did something, Laura Hayes,” he said sharply, his lips pressed together into a thin line. “Because the last few months you have been growing increasingly distant with me.”_

_Laura sighed a bit; he was a genius. In more areas than one, it seemed._

_“You haven’t done anything, Five,” Laura responded, keeping her voice as even as possible as she stared into his cold eyes, so unlike the twinkling blue that made her stomach flutt—bad train of thought, Laura—that she almost flinched. “Let’s just keep working.”_

_To her surprise, Five didn’t yield like he normally did when he pushed her buttons, instead walking over to her side of the table, crouching so that he was eye-level with her sitting form._

_Her heart was pounding._

_“Please just talk to me,” he implored, his voice  so earnest it scared her a bit. Him, too, it seemed, because he immediately cleared his throat and added—in a much cooler tone: “Secrets are not conducive to a successful work environment. Also, wasn’t it you who once said ‘the end of the world isn’t the time to hide things from people?’”_

_She had. Fuck his perfect memory._

_“That does sound like something a younger and more naïve version of myself would say, yes,” she answered noncommittally. “However, the Laura of the present is of the distinct belief that keeping some secrets is absolutely essential to keeping one’s relationships from going up in flames.”_

_It was a clear challenge: either he could back down and pretend this conversation never happened, or he could press her buttons by pushing further and risk pissing her off._

_Five, ever the survivalist, seemed to choose the former._

_”Alright,” he said, nodding a bit in acknowledgment. “That’s fine, let’s get back to work.”_

_“Great.”_

_“Good.” He stood up, hovering._

_Laura frowned. “Are you gonna go back to your side?”_ _Five stared at her silently, blue eyes intense in a way that made her both uncomfortable and...good uncomfortable._

_Which was bad._

_“Actually, you know what? I think I’m going to go for a walk after all,” she told him, standing up quickly and trying to ignore the shiver that went down her spine at the feeling of him standing so close to her. She purposefully stared at his neck, not his eyes, as she added, “Alone. I’ll be back in a half hour.”_

She’d told him that 29 minutes ago, to the second, and she still had no desire to return back to the middle school they were currently hiding out in. He had been too open with her, too honest, too close—in every sense of the word to her—that three months of carefully setting up boundaries immediately came crashing down around her, and that was only because he’d looked at her too intently. 

God, she was fucking pathetic. 

She was also an eighteen-year-old girl with wants and desires and unfortunately for her and her fellow apocalypse denizen, all of her wants and desires were being projected onto Five. Who barely even looked at her, except when he would suddenly _really_ look at her, and subsequently turn her insides to Jell-O.

It was all far too complicated, frankly, but Laura refused to let herself take the easy route and give in. She remembered how awkward it was to be partnered with her unrequited crushes in science class—she couldn’t imagine how bad it’d be if the only other person alive knew she had a massive, ridiculous crush on him. 

She would rather crawl out into the middle of the desert and let the vultures—

A sound suspiciously like footprints coming from a few feet off pulled her out of her musings. Her hand ghosted over the pistol Five made her carry around, “just in case I’m not around to save your hide,” her heart-rate spiking. She was probably imagining things. Five was back at the middle school, and nothing alive could have made such human-like footfalls. 

Regardless, she still called out, “Hello? Five, is that you?” 

Another rustle. This time she was able to pinpoint the sound directly behind a hollowed-out Mercedes. Her hand now gripped the gun in her pocket, but held off on pulling it out. 

At least, she did until a distinctly human face flashed through the window of the car. 

“FUCK!” she screeched, pulling out her gun and pointing it in the direction of the face, which lingered only a moment more before disappearing behind the car door. “Who the fuck are you?!” 

Her voice was loud, echoing through the general area and tainted with a mixture of fear and anger. There was a person behind that car, a person who wasn’t her or Five, and—fuck, Five! What if this person had hurt Five?!

That was enough to kill the fear, she started to advance on the car. 

”Don’t make me say it again,” she growled out, “Who. The. Fuck. Are. You?” 

No answer. Fuck. 

“Did you hurt my friend?” she pressed on, getting towards the real matter at hand. She didn’t give a shit who this guy actually was, just wanted to know that Five was safe. 

She heard two clicks—a gun? She wasn’t gonna wait around to find out. She shot a warning bullet through the car window, shattering the remaining glass that had stayed there throughout the years. 

And before she could do anything else, a bright blue flash that made her wince away from the light momentarily blinded her. 

“LAURA!” 

Five’s voice called out from behind her, and she whipped around to see him running towards her, the man behind the car momentarily forgotten. He teleported so that he was mere inches away from her, so that she could see the unfiltered worry on his face. 

“Five,” she breathed, and without thinking dropped her gun and threw her arms around his waist, letting her head slump against his chest. His heart was pounding. “You’re okay.” 

His hands tightly held onto her back. “Me? I’m not the one who was just firing her gun at a car and screaming. What happened?” 

He grabbed her shoulders, separating a bit of the distance between them, but still not releasing her from his hold. Her breath caught in her throat when she looked at him, hair uncharacteristically disheveled and pupils so dilated she could barely see the blues of his eyes.

He was terrified. For her. 

For some reason, the thought made her burst into tears. 

His grip on her arms slackened, and his voice, while still carrying a bit of urgency, softened. 

“It’s okay, Laura Hayes. You’re fine. I...I promise, it’s okay. Nothing is gonna hurt you while I’m here, okay? You’re safe.” 

He murmured all this into the shell of her ear, and had she been in any other state of mind this would have sent a shiver through her, but for now all she could do was try and listen and let herself calm down, focusing on the way his thumbs rubbed comforting circles into her upper arms. 

“I thought...I saw...and I thought he’d hurt you...”

Five immediately stiffened. “You thought _who_ would hurt me?” 

“There was a man. I swear to God. I saw a man’s face behind that car door, watching me. I shot at him when he wouldn’t tell me if he had hurt you or not. Then he disappeared in a blue light.” 

Five blinked. “You’re sure?” 

“I know it’s crazy, but you’ve got to believe me, Five,” she begged. She didn’t know what she’d do if he thought she’d imagined it. 

“Of course I believe you,” he said immediately, frowning slightly as if he was offended she’d ever think otherwise. “I...just...I’m calculating.” 

“Do you think he could’ve been like you?” Laura offered, calmer now but acutely aware of the fact that he was still rubbing her arms, not that she was complaining. 

Five nodded a bit, considering. “Maybe. Or maybe time-travel technology isn’t as elusive as my father always seemed to think.” 

“What do you mean?” Laura asked, brows furrowing together. 

“I need to do more equations.” 

Laura sighed a bit, moving to pull away, but to her surprise Five kept his grip on her. “Five?” 

“Did you...did you say you shot him because you thought he hurt me, Laura Hayes?” There was a hint of a smile in his voice that made Laura blush a bit. Gross, she was blushing now. 

“I...might have,” she said, deflating and avoiding his gaze. Five chuckled a bit, then put two fingers under her chin, guiding it back up to face him. 

The feel of his hands on the sensitive skin of her face made her shiver a bit, and she could only pray he couldn’t feel it. 

“Thank you,” he said quietly, and she couldn’t help but let her eyes focus on his lips, which were pink and smirking and so fucking close to her face and if she just leaned forward a little bit they would be...

”Well, let’s get to work then!” She abruptly tore herself from his grip, plastering a forced smile onto her face as she worked on steadying her breathing. Fuck her, was she really just gaping openly at Five’s fucking lips? 

Five stared at her, silent, his blue eyes narrowed as he studied her. She shifted uncomfortably on her feet. 

“Five?” she prompted, clearing her throat. “Are you alright?” 

He blinked, seeming to realize what he was doing, and in response let his face fall into his usual neutral mask. Laura couldn’t help but feel a prickle of dissatisfaction upon seeing his cool expression, but knew it was for the best. 

“I’m fantastic,” he said, sounding decidedly not fantastic. “Let’s get to work.” 

They walked back to the middle school in complete silence, parallel but never touching. A few times Laura felt her fingers, like magnets, gravitate towards his hand, aching to reach out and grab it, but she never did. 

She couldn’t. She couldn’t ruin their balance. 

(Little did she know, shutting Five out was doing more to upset the balance than letting him in ever would.) 

 


End file.
